Analysis Of The Wife's Story By Ursula Le Guin

220 Words1 Page

In “The Wife’s Story”, author Ursula Le Guin weaves an intriguing tale of a wolf turned human. Le Guin shows readers that not everything is as it seams. Ursula develops her characters to misguide her readers into believing that the characters are all humans at the begging of the story. Throughout the story readers start to realize that certain aspects of the characters do not match up.
Ursula writes about a young woman’s view on a tragic event that occurred to her family. “The Wife’s Story” starts out by giving us a brief history of our two main characters, and describing them with human qualities. For example, the wife describes her husband as “a good husband”, when you think of a husband you typically think of a human couple. Ursula also

Show More
Related

  • Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    This story represents the suffering induced by the isolation. In the time period on which this history was reflected, it was socially tolerable for wives to be

    Read More

  • Comparison of Attitudes Towards Marriage in A Hero of Our Time versus The House of the Spirits

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marriage, often thought of as a sacred union of the utmost importance, is portrayed in both A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, as a minor issue rather than a key part of the lives of the main characters. Marriage is unimportant to both main characters Pechorin and Clara. Lermontov uses Pechorin?s refusal of commitment, while being an object of desire and passion, to illustrate that men should keep their independence from women to protect their power. On the other hand, Allende uses Clara?s priorities of spirituality and children above her husband and marriage to suggest that women?s power does not depend on men.

    Read More

  • The Story Of An Hour And The Storm Critical Analysis

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout history women have pioneered their way into occupations that were once occupied solely by men. Not surprisingly, many achievements have come from women challenging and stepping out of their expected social roles. Today most women are free to voice their opinion and express themselves in every aspect of their lives, including their marriage. It was not long ago when women were deprived of this freedoms. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin Mrs. Mallard has been informed of the death of her husband. At first she feels melancholy because they both loved each other. He never mistreated her but at the same time she was chained to him. She quickly changes her mood when realizing what the death of her husband has given her. In the story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, Calixta is a loving

    Read More

  • Feminist Defeat and Perseverance

    1994 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Simone de Beauvoir's The Woman Destroyed, the reader is given a deep psychological portrait of a women's failing marriage. Not only does Beauvoir show us the thoughts and confidences of one beset by inner turmoil, she also portrays for us the marriage as it appears from the outside. The main character in The Woman Destroyed is the narrator Monique. She has been married to her husband Maurice for over twenty years and is trying to keep herself emotionally together after the realization that he is having an affair. Other characters the author introduces are the couple's two daughters, Colette and Lucienne. Colette has recently married and moved out of her parent's house. Lucienne, the younger of the two children, has moved to America to live an independent life from her family.

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast Women in The Yellow Wallpaper and Story of an Hour

    1712 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going through a rough time in her life.  (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the “the narrator in ‘Wall-paper,’” short for “The Yellow Wall-paper.  The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper.  This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life.  In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse.  At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free.  The institute of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together.  Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married.  Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo.  This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.

    Read More

  • The Birthday Party

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    Immediately, the narrator stereotypes the couple by saying “they looked unmistakably married” (1). The couple symbolizes a relationship. Because marriage is the deepest human relationship, Brush chose a married couple to underscore her message and strengthen the story. The husband’s words weaken their relationship. When the man rejects his wife’s gift with “punishing…quick, curt, and unkind” (19) words, he is being selfish. Selfishness is a matter of taking, just as love is a matter of giving. He has taken her emotional energy, and she is left “crying quietly and heartbrokenly” (21). Using unkind words, the husband drains his wife of emotional strength and damages their relationship.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Anne Roiphe's Why Marriages Fail

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the essay Why Marriages Fail by Anne Roiphe she mentions the statement that marriages do not mean as much when marriages were formerly brought in. In the past vows and promises mean the most to a wedding. Most married couples get divorced mainly for the same reason as any other marriages; they do not end up seeing eye to eye anymore, or they do not feel the same way as they did when the marriage first started, or someone was being cheated on by the other partner. When picking these partners, we might not think they are nothing like our relatives from our first home meaning our mothers and fathers but, we do select our partners based on our parents.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Company Of Wolves By Angela Carter

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter is a feminist and gruesome retelling of the fairy tale “Little Red Riding-Hood”. The story involves a werewolf, who represents a sexual predator. The werewolf is used as a symbol for both danger and desire. It also involves a young girl who does not fall victim to the fear of the wolf that she is surrounded by. She embraces her newfound sexual power and serves as symbol of sexual desire/power and female strength.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Protagonists From 'The Way Up To Heaven' And 'The Story Of An Hour'

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many intriguing characters in literature are devised from the apprehension women have encountered with men in the institution of marriage. Although portrayed differently, marriage is perceived as a constraint to the protagonists. This has been presented very well in “The Way Up To Heaven” penned by Roald Dahl who blatantly critiques the accepted societal roles of women in the mid-twentieth century and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin who highlights a woman’s plight in the 19th century. This is not only painted through the events of the stories, but also through the way each protagonist evolves into a dynamic character. The two main characters in these stories show many similarities, but they are also remarkably different in the ways they deal with their problem to gain independence.

    Read More

  • The Wife's Story By Ursula K. Le Guin Analysis

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    Would one expect to be dumbfounded after finding out towards the end of a story that all the characters are actually not human, but yet the author makes the whole story seem humanized? The following occurred in “The Wife’s Story” by Ursula K. Le Guin, who focused her short story on a husband, wife, and their two children, but no names are given. The wife is telling her story about what happened with her husband. Ursula formats her theme as being misleading as she plays with the readers mind but then reveals the truth towards the end of the story.

    Read More

  • The Matter Of Seggri And The Dystopian Society Among Ursula Le Guin

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    In an interview with DeathRay Magazine, Ursula Le Guin is asked, “What do you think the purpose of story is in human society? She replies, “I think we tell stories to each other to remember who we are as a people, and to find out who we are as individuals. Our stories carry our memory as members of the human community, information we need to find our way through life (Ursula K. Le Guin).” Among Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story collection, is a famous novella called, The Matter of Seggri, which perfectly embraces her passion and understanding of the human condition. Her stories explore the fictional future and imaginary societies. Published in 1994, The Matter of Seggri, Le Guin delves into the dystopian society of Seggri. She utilizes multiple narrators to tell their stories of the world of Seggri, giving the reader a detailed picture of life in this female dominate the world. In this society, women have power men, nearly sixteen women to one man. Women have all the power and men are basically only good for “fucking” and staging fighting games. At an early age, Le Guin was destined to become a storyteller. Given that her father was an anthropologists, her body of writing was greatly influenced by the ones who surrounded her. Her works are crafted with thoughtful detail through the use of imagination and elaborate description. As a feminist, Le Guin utilizes an alternative framework throughout the novella, portraying the women with all the strength and dehumanizing the role of the male. Le Guin effectively goes against conventional genre of real life where the male plays the dominant role. Regardless of gender, sex, and status in society, the message that Le Guin conveys to the reader, is that the human condition is alive a...

    Read More

  • The Story Of The Blue Beard Story By Charles Perrault

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...the story he is inviting the reader to condemn the mistreatment of women and lack of freedom in the family particularly under the institution of marriage. The attitude of the author gives the story a condemning tone. The tone is appropriate for the theme which is a strained relations in the family and specifically in marriage relations.

    Read More

  • Gender Stereotypes in Little Red Cap and The Grandmother

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...the young girl prior to meeting the wolf, how the young girl strays from the ideals of femininity once she meets the wolf, and last, what is inherently not feminine as represented by the wolf and his masculine characteristics. The wolf does not naturalize masculine characteristics within the reader because he still acts somewhat like a wolf, he is used as a tool to further naturalize the ideals of femininity, by standing in stark contrast to them.

    Read More

  • Medea And A Doll's House

    332 Words  | 1 Pages

    Marriage is defined as the legally recognized union of two people as partners. Although partners, husband and wife are not always treated equal under marriage. The roles between husband and wife has been questioned in literature since ancient times. Texts such as “Medea” by Euripides and “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen focus on the idea that unequally in marriage leads to tragedy. This idea is supported through protagonists, Medea and Nora, and their experiences in marriage including sacrifice, betrayal, and moving on.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of The Wife of Bath Prologue

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Wife of Bath’s tale tells about the alteration of an old woman into a beautiful woman. The moral of this tale is that true beauty lies within one’s self. The foul woman may have been representing the Wife, in that she is able to display all of her true beauty of her youth, if her true love comes along; in the Wife’s case, it is Jankyn, her fifth husband and only true love. With Jankyn by her side, she is able to transform into a faithful and loyal wife, just like the old woman.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of The Wife's Story By Ursula Le Guin

Open Document